International Wedding Traditions

What International Wedding Experiences Have You Had?

From the first toast to the cake-cutting ceremony, weddings are filled with traditions. However, it seems like each culture has their own set of customs. For example, a friend recently attended a wedding where they had a Peruvian "Crazy Hour" in which everyone dressed up in big hats and glowing bracelets. The lights were turned off, the music was turned up, and the guests went crazy!

Another friend helped her cousin make fruit cake to be served a couple of months down the line as favors at a traditional Irish-American wedding. According to the custom, single female guests are supposed to put the cake under their pillow and hope for a man! Since I find these international wedding practices to be fascinating, I want to hear about yours: what country wedding experiences have you had?

I love weddings in Mexico (at least in my experience) because they're very balanced as far as the mood of the events go. What I mean is that everyone takes the ceremony very seriously (it's usually in a Catholic church so you really should); not in a boring or uptight way, but with reverance and respect. Then the receptions are crazy - people go all out and have so much fun. Plus, everything is cheaper there and weddings usually start late and last all night. I was born in Mexico, as was the rest of my family (except for my dad), so I've been to quite a few memorable ones.
My cousin's wedding had guys on stilts dancing and passing out crazy hats, masks, and party favors (like the streamer horn things you get at kids parties, etc). There was also an amazing band that reenacted this kids musical group from the couple's childhood as well as the guy from The Mask and Celia Cruz. The party went until 3 a.m. and it was a blast.
Now I live in California (where my dad is from), and when two of my friends decided to get married in Mexico in the bride's hometown, my whole group of friends went. it was so much fun - we hung out every day, did the "rehearsal dinner" at this crazy techno/cumbia club, and even went to get tacos at like 4 in the morning after the whole wedding - the bride and groom in their wedding clothing included! That was quite a night.
I love our country here (and I consider myself American first), but we lack a very defined culture. While there are tons of wonderful traditions and things very specific to the United States, foreign countries have so much more history and cultures that have developed over the centuries. It makes for really amazing experiences visiting and seeing what other parts of the world do...

Indian and African (of varying ethnic groups in both cases) and European. Nothing was remarkable about any of them to me except that the dancing was more amazing and played a much much much stronger component in Indian and African weddings whereas european weddings are somewhat...dry (though they are better in that everything happens on time and they are shorter!)